AriesCinema frequently provides us with archetypes in their purest form.
For example in “Fast & Furious“, the fourth
installment of the series about illegal car races (finally Vin Diesel aka
Dominic – “Dom”! – Toretto
is back) the very title quotes the determining Aries-features that drive
the beefy characters and fuel the plot: fast and furious.

Taurus
The counterbalance to Mars is Venus and, set in a pleasant surrounding,
the gentle drama “The Secret Life of Bees“ is about Taurus-topics
like property and the security it can provide. The film embeds a Cancer-type
family story in Taurus-type images. From ancient times honey is a traditional
enhancer of beauty and a Venusian delicacy, and it is honey gathering,
that allows – back in the eventful sixties – the black all-woman
household in South Carolina a secure and unagitated life. Until they
take in a white teenage girl, who is on the run from a disturbing family
past…

Gemini
In “Religioulous“ the American comedian Bill Maher travels
around the world with light humor and the quintessential Gemini-credo “I
know that I don’t know” in order to talk to members of various
religious communities. Through the documented dialogues Maher wittily
exposes the absurd behind many beliefs and occasionally even the embarrassing
ridiculousness of some believers, while he counters every alleged religious
truth with his statement “I preach the gospel of I don’t
know“. Doubt as the sole possible insight – clearly a Gemini
analogy.

Cancer
There are yet two Cancer-type movies this month dealing with troublesome
daughters returning to the bosom of their families. With a warm look “Rachel
Getting Married” focuses on the web of relationships
in a big, multicultural patchwork-family and the ways they cope with
the challenging
appearance of troubled drug addict Kym at her sister’s wedding.“
Ob ihr wollt oder nicht” (“Whether or not you want to”),
a heartwarming, courageously emotional and funny drama, is about a
young woman who has cancer, leaves chemotherapy and her beloved husband
and returns to her family’s home to spend the time she has left
with her sisters and parents.

Leo
Based on true characters and events “Cadillac Records” tells
about a different sort of family with a paternalistic center. In 1947
a white music producer starts recording blues music and turns musicians
like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry into
stars. In true Leo-style the movie celebrates the music and the glamour
of the stars-to-be and their manager, who likes to make a show of his
generosity and present his stars with shiny cars.

Virgo
A world without any glamour is shown in “Wasser und Seife” (“Water
and Soap”). Again it’s already the very title, that reveals
the Virgo-quality. The documentary observes the laborious and poorly
paid daily grind of three women providing laundry-services amidst hot
steam and noisy ironing machines in Hamburg-Flottbeck, where they dream
their humble dreams (Pisces’ balance for too much Virgo) between
closing time and early start of work in social housing flats...

Libra
In the comedy “I Love You, Man“ an overfriendly and very civilized
man meets a slightly rough but emotionally authentic guy, who doesn’t
care about the conventions of social harmony. By means of the blossoming
friendship between these two very different men, the movie presents a lightweight
attempt on Libra-motifs like complement and (excessive) Other-orientedness.
In the elegant and hilarious crime-story “Duplicity” social
conventions are being ignored by a manipulating couple carrying out their
relationship and power struggle in criminal but profitable ways in the
field of industrial espionage: Julia Roberts and Clive Owen working on
Scorpio-issues in a very Libra-like way.

Scorpio
One of the most favored Scorpio-motifs in film is revenge. “Wolverine”,
titled after a character known from the “X-Men”-movies and
the graphic novel of the same name, traces the origins of the character,
which are marked by cruelty and a thirst for revenge, making his unfailing
healing ability only one of many Scorpio-characteristics. Untamable rage,
caused by the brutal murder of his lover, makes Logan, the mutant with
blades in his hands, agree to the transformation of his skeleton into indestructible
metal and an enhancing of his animal instincts and thus changes him into
Wolverine, one of the most interesting and loved graphic novel heroes in
popular cinema.

Sagittarius
The fiery enthusiasm that accompanies Philip Seymour Hoffman’s and
Bill Nighy’s mission in spreading popular rock music by pirate broadcasting
in “The Boat That Rocked”, makes me rather think of lively
Sagittarius than of cool Aquarius despite the rebel-attitude – after
all, they are broadening horizons and not only are they constantly on the
move, they are starting a movement. The connection to music (and to the
sea, the missionary pirates are cruising) is defined by Jupiter, the ruler
of Sagittarius, who as the former ruler of Pisces also introduces the all-connecting
quality of the Muses.

Capricorn
Of such gaudy colorfulness “John Rabe” offers not a glimpse.
On the contrary: muted colors, dark war sceneries and a morality-tale
about duty, responsibility and conscience, questions of right and wrong,
based on historical events and persons, make this war-epic a truly Capricornian
film. Aiming directly at the spectators’ emotional responses though,
the production clearly uses the opposed sign of Cancer as a means of
communication and expression.

Aquarius
Sometimes the staging can change the main quality: Virtually a veritable
Aries-movie with fast action and fight-scenes, rich on adrenaline, “Crank
2: High Voltage” is amplified with an Uranian element by the high-tension
electricity Jason Statham’s character so urgently needs, in order
to keep his artificial, forcibly implanted heart going. Combined with
the hyper-nervous performance and camera style and a frenzied sequence
of absurd, crazy and cranky ideas we get an Aquarius-accented, hysterically
funny action movie.

Pisces
Following traditional genre conventions in it’s structure and thus
formally shaped by Saturnian features, the mystery thriller “Knowing” tells
us about an inexplicable phenomenon a terrified astrophysicist gets confronted
with: his little son is given a page of numbers that turn out to be the
precise data of every major disaster from the last fifty years – written
by a little girl fifty years before. Mysterious whisperer people emerge
from nowhere, spiritual answers are pondered on the question of the randomness
or determination of our world and even the typical Pisces-motifs sacrifice
and salvation are not left out. After “Dark City” (1988) and “I,
Robot”, director Alex Proyas again dedicates a film to the Neptunian
and indistinct borderland of our perception of the world and of being human.

Vesna Ivkovic

Vesna
Ivkovic studied literature and linguistics, sociology, philosophy and
history and as well took a profound interest in psychology, mythology
and different belief systems. Along the way she also explored various
paths of body awareness such as the martial arts of Kung Fu, Dance,
Yoga, Qi Gong and several other methods of body work and motion arts.
In 1993 she discovered astrology as an instrument of knowledge and graduated
in 2004 in Markus Jehle's and Petra Niehaus' master class at the Astrology
Center Berlin. You can find out more about the author and her work on
her own website www.astrosemiotics.de

The Cinemascope is meant to give an overview of current movies and their main themes from an astrosemiotical perspective (i.e.: regarding film as semiotic system and translating it into the astrological semiotic system). A well made movie not only has a story and a certain theme, it also provides a special atmosphere, a certain feeling and it draws us into its very own world. This basic quality that is contrived through characters, plot, setting and many other components also translates into one or more astrological principles. Quite simply: a fast-paced action-flick confronts us with plain Aries energy, a horror-movie evokes Scorpio-like abysmal depths and fears etc. We step out of the theatre and – if the film succeeded in sucking us in – find ourselves dwelling on and engaging in that special energetic quality.

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